


All the Pretty Girls

by hqprotectionsquad



Series: Haikyuu!! One Shots [35]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Angst, College, M/M, Unrequited Crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-14
Updated: 2021-01-14
Packaged: 2021-03-18 13:53:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28744287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hqprotectionsquad/pseuds/hqprotectionsquad
Summary: OIKAWA’S doing good for himself because all the pretty girls like Oikawa, and he’s the only freshman on the starting lineup. Life is anything but fair, and maybe Iwaizumi will hold back just for once.
Relationships: Iwaizumi Hajime/Oikawa Tooru
Series: Haikyuu!! One Shots [35]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1702609
Kudos: 1





	All the Pretty Girls

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! I am cross-posting my content from tumblr (charmingchikara) to this AO3 account. I no longer post from my old tumblr, hqprotectionsquad. I hope you all enjoy! If you liked this one shot, please leave a comment or kudos!
> 
> This is my first time doing a male x male ship. Sadly, it is of an unrequited crush :c but still enjoy!

It’s difficult to watch pretty girls swarm Oikawa. They shove gifts and cards at him, like he’s some celebrity. He’s not one, not yet at least. Iwaizumi will always be watching Oikawa grow a bigger influence and attract larger crowds. Who’s going to tell them that this person they are idolizing could never take a bath without his rubber ducks until he was ten years old?

As Oikawa makes it back to his best friend, Iwaizumi smacks the sunglasses onto the table. “Who do you think you are, Shittykawa?” They can’t even get through a single dinner at the dining hall without Oikawa thinking he’s all that. The transition from high school to college has never been harder, and Oikawa eats up everyone’s energy like it’s dessert. It’s worse than when they attended tournaments together and people would flock to his best friend, handing off candy with their heads hanging down.

“Jeez, Iwa. Just trying to protect myself!”

“From who, exactly?” To avoid saying an insult, Iwaizumi gnaws on the inside of his cheek, feeling his jaw shift underneath. He can’t resist saying a comment about the girls. “They really have nothing else to do, huh.”

“Well, I guess they want to do me, so— ouch, fuck. Iwa-chan, why’d you have to hit me?” Broken record, all day, everyday. Always asks with an endearing smile, and it’s frustrating to Iwaizumi.

“Who else will bring your ego down?” Sure, it’s Oikawa’s first year on the team, and somehow, his reputation from Seijoh follows him wherever he goes. Iwaizumi, on the other hand, waits for the year to end as quickly as possible. If he receives the email from the office of transfer students, Iwaizumi will be on a plane on the other side of the Pacific, away from stupid Oikawa and his stupid harem. He just doesn’t know how he would tell Oikawa.

“Ah, and that’s how I know you love me. Iwa-chan is the best!”

 _He’s got one part for sure_ , Iwaizumi thinks to himself.

The number of weeks in the semester dwindle down to single digits, but that is no match for Oikawa and his crew. In fact, it seems as though the group of girls that hang on his arm has doubled in size. Is it so wrong that Iwaizumi wants to fume and yell at all of them to leave him and Oikawa alone?

The girls stop what they’re doing to visit the athlete in the library, during such precious studying time that Iwaizumi needs to ask them to “get the hell out of here and study on your own.”

“Wow, I never knew you would need to yell at those girls earlier! Too bad; they were very nice.”

“They might be nice, but they’re disrupting our study session.”

“Don’t be mad, it’s okay.” Just as Iwaizumi wants to refute the statement, Oikawa continues, “You do look mad. Here, put your face in the cup.” Oikawa rests his elbows on the table and prompts for Iwaizumi to press his chin into one of his palms. With the other hand, Oikawa massages Iwaizumi’s face, by the temples and in between his eyebrows. “Don’t sleep!” Oikawa exclaims, noticing his best friend nodding off in his palm. And he loves the feeling that his friend is relying on him.

“Mmm, trying not to. We still have a lot of studying to do,” Iwaizumi mutters, sitting straight in his chair once again. He won’t get into the school across the ocean without maintaining his grades, even if he can’t open his eyes all the way from exhaustion.

* * *

Iwaizumi knows it’s Saturday, so that should warrant a free day; well, maybe if it were the beginning of the semester. With Oikawa out of the dorm for a full day of practice, it’s his day to conquer.

But he can’t get out of the tucked in comforter. Call it the “Sunday scaries,” because wasting away a Saturday is the worst way to lead into a stressful Sunday, or maybe call it “I finally got news from my dream school last night and I can’t get over it.”

He presses the heel of his palm into his forehead as he sits up. This Saturday should be so much more than making company with his sheets, but how can he not?

“How am I supposed to tell you?” Iwaizumi asks aloud as he turns his head to the poster across the room. Of course that self-centered man would hang up his Seijoh poster, as well as his current university poster, side-by-side. The posters smile at him, both in different positions, but Iwaizumi knows that they have captured his happiest moments in a snapshot. How is he supposed to tell his best friend of so many years that he’s going to accept this offer and leave this life?

His parents know, of course, and they are okay with the transfer. Hell, Iwaizumi has even told Hanamaki and Matsukawa because he wanted some people to know about it before he makes this large decision that will change his life forever.

Later that night, Iwaizumi’s scanning his computer to review the documents before signing off on the admission acceptance. They’re a pain to get done, so Iwaizumi decides that since he’s essentially set to commit to this transfer, he’ll get a head start. With his headphones secure over his ears, he works through one form.

“Whatcha doing, Iwa-chan?” Oikawa asks and it takes everything not to smack the living daylights out of him.

“What the hell, Oikawa? I’m trying to do work.”

“I was just coming in after my practice, I tried to say hello, but you were so caught up with this. What is this, by the way?”

“It’s something—”

“What the fuck?” From the shaking in his fingers and voice to the shift in his jaw, Oikawa has consumed the word angry and made it his own. Iwaizumi hasn’t really seen Oikawa like this before, and his stomach churns with guilt and heartache. “You weren’t going to tell me you’re leaving?”

Soon enough, Iwaizumi stands to match Oikawa’s posture and is promptly met with the concrete wall smashed into his back. Yet, he won’t fight back.

“Does our friendship mean nothing?” Oikawa pushes him again. “Can you fucking answer me, Hajime?” It comes out more as a demanding yell.

“I was going to tell you—”

“Save it.”

Before he could do anything, Oikawa removes himself from the situation, walking out of the dorm room they’ve shared for the past seven months. Iwaizumi couldn’t even explain. Such a Tooru move, huh, demanding answers but leaving before he could hear them.

Iwaizumi turns to the smiling posters. Oikawa doesn’t need him, does he? He has all the pretty girls. He has volleyball. Oikawa has everything he needs to be content in this world. He could get over the loss of a friend…right?

* * *

The rest of the semester was hell. Iwaizumi knew better than to fuck things up even more, but he couldn’t just ignore the guy. For hell’s sake, Oikawa was _the_ freshman on campus. Iwaizumi couldn’t walk through a whole day without Oikawa’s name being mentioned here and there. Being a freshman on the starting lineup of the most prominent team at the university can boost anyone’s reputation.

So no, not even if Iwaizumi tried, could he shake off the presence of Oikawa, and Oikawa didn’t want it to be that way either. They made up over Oikawa telling Iwaizumi to buy him a cheat meal from his favorite cafe.

(”Fuck you, Iwa-chan,” Oikawa mumbles as he chews his cake. “Fuck you for thinking you could leave without telling me. And don’t even say anything about how you told Makki and Matsukawa without telling me first!” Iwaizumi wonders if the cake tastes different with a flow of tears hydrating it.)

Still, Iwaizumi walks along the ocean on a beach that has no sand, only rocks.

By the end of the summer, Iwaizumi’s life is packed up into two suitcases, plus the one box that is arriving at his dorm early. Here’s to the six-year-old kid in him that thought everyone and everything needed to take a boat to cross the seas, taking days, maybe months to arrive at the shore. The present-day Iwaizumi thinks the kid would’ve been proud to know that he’s boarding an airplane today to achieve a dream that’s been in the making for a while now.

He sends texts to Hanamaki and Matsukawa in their group chat, but to Oikawa, he sends individually, “My flight is at 3. I’ll be at Terminal 2 at 12.”

Maybe it’s a shot in the dark, but maybe this last gathering will finally lay things down, lay him down. Iwaizumi knows that he’ll be at the Terminal half an hour early, just in case Oikawa comes early too.

Dragging suitcases into a busy terminal is a greater struggle than one might think, even for someone who works out regularly. His parents couldn’t stay for long; they’d end up sobbing if they saw Iwaizumi out to the security entrance. The only person who he could handle that from is—

“Oikawa, you came.”

“Are you kidding? Of course I came.”

For once, Iwaizumi isn’t thinking about all of the girls who have hung themselves across Oikawa’s massive web of connections, nor is he thinking about the team Oikawa belongs to. He’s thinking about this insane ache in his chest, but there’s an undeniable grin on his face.

“Thanks.”

“You’re my best friend, you know that?” Oikawa looks intently.

“I couldn’t call you my friend.”

He is two seconds away from being tackled by Oikawa, right then and there. “What, why?”

“Because you’re too important for me to call you such a simple word. You deserve better.” Iwaizumi can tell Oikawa is trying to prompt more out of his mouth, but he can’t bear to see his face, so Hajime pulls Oikawa into a bone-crushing hug. He pulls the man in, the man he can’t call his friend because the word is not enough for the feelings that cause the aches in his heart.

“Don’t forget me.” Oikawa’s the first to cry, and he couldn’t care that people are staring. This is their small bubble in this augmented reality. This is their own world. “Don’t you dare forget me, Iwaizumi Hajime.”

“I couldn’t even if I tried.” He couldn’t even if he tried, because the part of him that wants to kiss the living daylights out of Oikawa still holds out hope that one day that could actually happen. For now, he settles for another hug, the last embrace in a long time. Iwaizumi knows Oikawa will be okay, but will he himself be okay?

Some habits die easy; others, not so much. Now, it’s time to extinguish the flames before he sets himself on fire to keep another warm.


End file.
